This invention relates to guitars, and, more particularly to a string nut attachment for the guitar peghead.
The effective playing length of guitar strings on conventional guitars is determined by the guitar nut, located at the juncture of the peghead and neck, and the bridge, located at the lower end of the guitar body. That is, the strings vibrate between their points of contact at the nut and bridge. It is also possible to press down on one or more of the guitar strings above the nut to thereby stretch the strings over the nut. This results in a modification of vibration, and a unique musical sound. Such special effects cannot be readily produced on most guitars presently available, since they have notched nuts, the notching being required to insure adequate spacing between strings. In attempts to produce the special effects, the strings tend to catch in the slots, or will fail to return to their original unstretched position.
More recently, guitars have been developed with unnotched nuts, referred to as "zero nuts", at the juncture of neck and peghead, with a slotted nut disposed on the peghead. The primary function of the zero nut is to insure that each string is a set distance above the fretboard, which distance can vary considerably if notched nuts are used. However, such construction is relatively inflexible and does not permit the easy production of special effects above the fretboard, as described above. At present there are not available any peghead attachments for allowing special effects above the fretboard while at the same time insuring proper lateral spacing and height of strings above the fretboard.